Tal Goreans,
Greetings visitors,

Welcome once again to the Booknotes column.

Once again we leave our usual narrator, Tarl Cabot, to his own devices, and spend some time in the company of a new protagonist. This is Miss Tiffany Collins, of whom more shortly. First however I wish to offer a few words of thanks to the friend who has lent me a copy of the book we are about to study, for it is one of the only two I neither own nor have on semi-permanent loan. So if you are still reading, Kate, thank you very much for the loan of the nineteenth of the Chronicles of Counter-Earth, Kajira of Gor.

Chapter One

Our story begins on Earth, where Miss Collins is the subject of a photo-shoot; a comparatively modest one, but given that it is for a complete stranger and represents her first foray into glamour photography, probably explicit enough for her present tastes. She gives us some back-story: that she was a humble but pretty department-store salesgirl whose duties on the perfume counter were interrupted by a very well-heeled and exceptionally self-assured customer. He remarked on her resemblance to someone else, which as she observes is a well-known chat-up technique, and got her to model the most expensive scent in the shop, whereupon he paid her a thousand dollars for it with the instructions to keep the change, and promptly gave her not only the perfume but also a card with an address on it and a mysterious coin.

At least, that it was a coin was her best guess and also the specialist she took it to, but he remarked on its unusual design (with an eagle-like crested bird on one side, and some lettering not in any Earth alphabet past or present), its apparently hand-made nature, the signs it bore of having been in circulation, and incidentally that it was made of gold. Miss Collins was able to realize $1800 on the bullion value alone (no doubt the expert, had he known of its extra-terrestrial nature, would have shot her in cold blood to preserve it as a priceless curio), which gives us some idea of the weight of gold in a Gorean tarn although we do not know whether it was a single or a double, and in any case does not allow us to compare buying power, for a variety of obvious reasons.

Miss Collins is anxious to please at her photo shoot, as it represents an entry into a potentially exciting and lucrative career, and apparently she is indeed pleasing; she is already pronounced worthy of at least one position.

Chapter Two

She finds herself put on a retainer, a hundred dollars a week being by no means chump change in early 1980s money especially as she is still able to pursue her daily job. She receives a phone call that tersely tells her that she has been “selected” and later a somewhat longer one directing her to a rendezvous. There she is picked up by limousine and told that she has been approved for an important job, and not merely the “at least” post referred to earlier. Of course she is delighted, expecting fame and fortune to follow. She is shocked however to be ordered to all fours, in silence, on the floor of the limousine, and made to wait there as the car is driven around for hours. Where many women would have been simply terrified, Tiffany finds a fair amount of sexual arousal mixed in with the fear, to her no small consternation. (Proof once again that Gorean slavers can accurately select Earth women not only for appearance but for their disposition, of course; but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.)

Later she receives instructions to take a shower at eight one evening, and while she is doing so, her new employers let themselves into her flat, using some techy door-opening device that certainly isn’t standard Gorean equipment. They bring with them a large metal crate and a carton that will contain it, and order her to bring them coffee while she is still clad only in her bath towel. Again, rather than screaming or trying to call the cops, Tiffany does as she is told and finds herself struggling not to strip herself and fall to the tiles on her belly. In due course she finds herself bound, gagged, anaesthetised and crated, to be carried out of her flat and never seen on Earth again; but at any rate it was not as traumatic or spun-out an abduction as, say, Elinor Brinton’s (the Captive of Gor).

Chapter Three

Usual form on these occasions is for there to be an awakening scene, and Tiffany doesn’t let us down. An unguessed time later she awakens in a bed, to call which “comfortable” would be to miss the perfect opportunity to use the word “sybaritic,” in a red-tiled room decorated with furs and treasure-chests. Unforunately she is leashed to it for the present. She senses a slight change in gravity and quality of air, although to be sure, a creature adapted to live in ~200mb partial pressure of oxygen has no particular reason to find any change an improvement, and she guesses that she might not be on Earth, but dismisses this wild conclusion and hopes it’s just the drugs talking. (And from her point of view, this is much the most sensible assessment.)

Soon she finds herself attended by a silk-clad beauty named Susan, who professes herself what we would have expected: a slave. Tiffany is now residing in “Corcyrus,” and divines that this is a city-state, but does not know what to make of the information; she is a thousand miles from the sea, but this is neither the Atlantic, nor the Pacific, nor even the Indian ocean, but something called “Thassa.” She now guesses she is actually in Africa or Asia, both of which guesses are wrong but attest to the basic soundness of the channels on which her thought is now heading. Also she learns of the availability of slave whips, and Susan confirms that her Mistress (meaning Tiffany) may whip her if she sees fit, using the conveniently-located rings to tie her to. Naturally Tiffany is shocked.

By now Tiffany has become acquainted with such things as brands and collars, which Susan is quite matter-of-fact about, and also the acceptability of slavery on Gor. She is horrified but argues poorly against Susan’s advocacy of the institution (a rhetorical cheapo by the author, putting the good arguments only in the mouth of the character who defends the favoured side of the debate), and at any rate Susan seems quite happy with being the property of Ligurious of Corcyrus. It comes as a great relief to Tiffany to learn that she is not herself a slave - and yet she experiences a kind of longing to be owned in almost the same instant. Indeed she at once asserts herself a slave, and can only be thankful that, in Gorean terms, there was no one present to ratify the declaration. (As we know, the presence of a free witness would have made the mere declaration binding and irrevocable.)

The momentary crisis past, Tiffany dresses with Susan’s help and is made aware as she has never been before of her own sexual identity. This is the proper moment for Ligurious to make his entrance, and he doesn’t disappoint us. He is the very model of a strong Gorean man, like a lion in human form, and Tiffany’s attempt to relate to him Earth style as “person to person” doesn’t last past the first moment he looks sternly at her and gives her an order. Pronouncing himself satisfied with her, Ligurious undoes her chain, to the mixed relief and disappointment of Tiffany who was more than half expecting to be raped and rather less than half afraid of it.

Ligurious, First Minister of Corcyrus, confirms that Tiffany isn’t in Kansas any more, and when she sniffily demands whether she has been brought here to serve some man “as though he might be my master,” he remarks, “He would be your master” with perfect self-assurance and some menace. However it seems that this is not to be her fate for now, and he confirms for her that she is still a virgin, which pleases her for two reasons: not to have been unaware of such a profound female change, and possibly to be more highly prized as a virgin.

Once Ligurious is gone, Tiffany sets about eating and drinking, and we learn that not only coffee but chocolate is known on this world. (It need hardly be said that Goreans make a mean cup of chocolate. We would expect no less. It’s locally grown but undoubtedly of Earth stock.) She learns that although she was brought here by spaceship, Susan has never seen one and neither have most people. (Again, we know that Gorean space travel is only by agency of Priest-Kings or Kurii and Priest-Kings don’t tend to enable the traffic in Earth-girl slaves.) She would like to make friends with Susan, but Susan is visibly terrified of acting inappropriately for their respective stations. But she serves as a handy source of local information, and encourages Tiffany to start thinking of herself as Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus; though she understands neither this, nor the name of her new homeworld: Gor.

Chapter Four

It turns out that to be a Tatrix is to hold a position of great importance (as regular readers will remember from Outlaw of Gor, so many years ago). As “Sheila,” Tiffany has been undergoing many intensive lessons in language and customs and has been publicly paraded on several occasions in the last few days. Her duties have included presiding over public justice sessions, at which she has had the pleasant duty of ousting the odious Speusippus of Turia, a low-status peddler as personally unprepossessing as he is dishonest. Unusually for a free woman, Tiffany has appeared unveiled before her adoring subjects, explained as granting those subjects the opportunity to gaze lovingly and loyally upon their ruler. It is especially good for them given the “troubles” with Argentum, says Ligurious, but he is not at once forthcoming on what this means. Tiffany finds her curiosity diverted by a trip past the slave market, feeling once again the urge to strip and present herself for the pleasures of either Ligurious or else any of their guardsmen, such as Drusus Rencius.

But she is brought back to earth rather sharply by the vigorous protestations of a sturdy Metal Worker, named Menicius, who protests that she is no Tatrix but rather a Tyranness. She is unable to ascertain the cause of this complaint, but intervenes when Ligurious orders Menicius summarily executed, instead having him freed and indeed given money. And as they go their way, with Ligurious and co. loudly proclaiming the falsity of Menicius’s allegations (plainly so in view of the Tatrix’s mercy and charity!), and assuring her that not only do the people love her but that, as the official reports clearly show, all is well in the city.

Drusus Rencius, by the way, is of Ar and is First Sword among the Tatrix’s retinue. He is a bold fellow too, as when given leave to speak he avers that the Tatrix is a slave in truth, and he seems to find it odd that she goes face-stripped although when Tiffany parrots the line above, he accepts it gravely and obediently. Tiffany however is feeling slightly odd. She feels light-headed, as though drugged, and wonders whether she is in truth the Tatrix of Corcyrus. She drifts into a dream in which at first Drusus Rencius prepares to put her to the whip, and then she is carried off by Ligurious to be viewed by another woman, who is like her but colder, and is desired by Ligurious but will have none of him.

Awakening again, she studies herself in the mirror, asking herself if she is not truly a slave. Arising from this self-examination in anger, she determines to go and have it out with Ligurious, but a guard will neither allow her to leave nor have Ligurious summoned, as he is “with his women;” and though he is willing to call for Drusus Rencius, Tiffany finds this unsatisfactory and returns to her couch. There she muses further on slavery, on her own nature, and of the dearth of Masters on Earth; and, trying to reassure herself that she is indeed a Tatrix, and trying not to think too hard about being one of Ligurious’s women, she falls asleep again.

And there we must leave her for now, with numerous imponderables yet to be answered. Why has she been brought to Gor as Corcyrus’s Tatrix? Is it really the custom for Tatrices to go unveiled before their subjects? Is Tiffany not a slave rather than a queen? Why does someone think she is a tyrant? What is Ligurious up to - and was that mysterious other woman only a dream? And where does the bold swordsman of Ar fit into all this? Find out next month as we venture for a second time into the adventures of Tiffany Collins, Kajira of Gor!

I wish you well,

Socrates